It’s not a common sight, but it happened on 4 November: A rare Grumman Albatross flying up the Hudson River somewhere between the Statue of Liberty and Battery Park, with a man standing up in the bow hatch, arms outstretched against a 150kt headwind. If you happened to be standing in Lower Manhattan on that fine autumn day, you might have been among the witnesses standing, mouths agape at the unusual scene. “People stopped in their tracks on Battery Park,” Dirk Braun told FlightGlobal in an interview. As Braun explained, the flight was part of a scene for a documentary film called “Flying Boat”, a love letter to the class of vehicles that blend the nautical with the aeronautical. Braun was the man standing in the bow hatch. A Beechcraft Bonanza flew chase, with a cinematographer capturing the scene. After circling around the Statue of Liberty, the 65-year-old Albatross flew north of the Hudson. Braun moved into position, crawling into a sleeping birth located under the cockpit control panel. Just beyond, a hatch opens up in the nose. It’s normally used for a crewmember to lay anchor after the Albatross comes to a stop after a water landing. Braun’s film crew had another idea. The documentary will continue filming the rest of the year and into...